Social activities for a lonely homeschooled teenager?

[taylorjade]

Dd is in year ten and began home schooling this year due to bullying and anxiety.

She's looked at a local sixth form centre and is really keen to attend from September next year so hopefully this is a relatively short term issue.

Dd is 14, mature for her age, has some autistic traits and quite a bit of social anxiety.

She has two good friends but says they only contact her when they want to talk about their problems and never asks how she is. They both have boyfriends now so DD is feeling a bit left behind.

Can anyone think of some social activities she can do? She doesn't like exercise (does come to the gym with me) and social anxiety means things without a specific activity like youth clubs are out.

She does volunteer at a riding stables at the weekend which she loves but it's so busy there isn't much time for chatting,

Any ideas? She's tried to research some things herself but not come up with much.

Dd is in the Navy cadets - she LOVES it! Strong recommend from me, loads of outside activities, lots of friends.

I home schooled my DD at this age, and she went onto a year 11 course at a local college.

She did riding lessons once a week, that was very sociable for her if expensive!

She got a part time job working in a local shop on Saturday mornings.
She went to a Kip McGrath group for Maths/English and several of the other kids at this session were also HE'd so that killed two birds with one stone too.
We had a NT membership and did lots of history visits, I found the volunteers/staff were great if you told them what you were doing.

does she like reading ? book clubs might be a good idea if so, i think you might be able to find ones more suited to her age. There are also things like art club/ lessons if shes interested in art.

I’d recommend Rangers too.

Get plugged in to your local home Ed community

Drama groups - it’s counterintuitive but they are really great for people who may lack confidence.

Hello similar situation here! Art/cooking? Forest schools for teens in this area. Feel free to pm me.

Choir can be a good thing, my dd is autistic and sang from young. She loves church too as they are so accepting

Junior branch of St John’s Ambulance? Very structured and process-based, understandably.
Backstage theatre skills - sound, light etc?
Is there a cause she feels strongly about, maybe there’s a group for it?
Joining an evening class maybe, not necessarily for a qualification?
Art club?

My daughter loves St John's Ambulance cadets.

Home ed mum here.

St John Ambulance cadets as others have said. Also structured activities organised by local home ed groups — sewing, art, sports, museum trips, board games meet ups.

Water based sports seem to attract nice kids! Kayaking, rowing, sailing.

Good luck OP. It’s a hard age for an anxious child.

I had a great school experience (was on of the popular girls) and I did Army cadets! Best experience I had, fun trips available, learning amazing skills. I was a confident, loud, talkative out of my shell child but the ones who weren't built so much confidence and self esteem by attending cadets and it was only twice a week for like 3hrs.